JapaneseI am participating in the Tadoku test run that is happening until the end of the month. I’ve never counted pages, clocked hours, etc, so these two weeks will also test my ability to track some metrics.
I finished reading all 6 of the 三毛猫ホームズ books that I own. So, I went to my central library to pick up 3 more. And, surprise, they actually have the very first book in the series from 1978. The other 2 will be the most contemporary (2013, 2014) that I will have read in this series. I began the first one last night. Of all 7 books, now, this has been the easiest for me to get started with. Usually, I have a fuzzy understanding of the first handful of pages, but this one I could dive right in. I don’t know if this is a sign of improvement or just that this particular book starts off easier. It’s also nice to be formally introduced to the characters. Because this is a long running series, each book that I’ve read only has a line or two introduction for the main characters with only the absolute essentials. With this book, I am getting a proper introduction.
The following is not so much about my language learning, but some surprises I found when I pursued the foreign language section of my central library:1. The French pickings are slim. My local branch has only about 5 books in French and shelves and shelves full of Russian and Spanish. But, I thought that the central branch would have a greater inventory of French books. Mais, non.
2. I was reminded of my favourite TV program when I was living in Japan. サザエさん!
This was the only show that I truly understood when I was in Japan. I loved it! It came on on Sunday evenings at 6:00 or 6:30pm and I would often arrange my time so I could be home to watch it. I was entertained by other shows, but I didn’t necessarily understand much. In サザエさん, they spoke slow enough, with text-book pronunciation, about daily life in Japan. I learned so much from this one show — linguistically and culturally. If it’s possible to get a hold of サザエさん outside of Japan, I highly recommend it for beginners.
Personally, I was made aware of サザエさん within my first moments in Japan as I share the same name as one of the characters. So, after I introduced myself, I more often than not heard something in an excited voice like あっ、サザエさんのタラちゃんsomethingsomething (笑)(I don’t know exactly what they said, because I knew no Japanese at the time.)
Anyways, back to the library — they had a サザエさん manga and I snatched it up. Before becoming a TV series, it was originally a comic strip. I think I also read at some point that it is the longest running anime show (in the world?). (My memory might be wrong about this, though.)
3. I saw a book written for Japanese people on how to be a conversationalist. The very first section starts super simply with ‘let’s talk about the weather’. And, then gives a handful of openers based on the weather. I now have this on my list of books to check out at some point.
4. In anticipation of the future I looked over the Thai section. It’s hard for me to gain much from looking at the Thai script on the binding. But, there was one book on display and I noticed that the writing under the Thai title looked Japanese (in romaji). And, lo and behold, it is a book by 赤川次郎 translated into Thai!The very same author that wrote the 三毛猫ホームズ that I’m reading! So, someday, when I’m ready to break into Thai, I’ll be getting this book in Japanese and using it as a parallel reader.
5. The author for just about half the books written in Thai is Sopak Suwan (โสภาค สุวรรณ, some dozens and dozens of books). Almost all these books were donated and have a short summary written in English taped to the inside of the front cover. If I understood correctly they were donated by the author’s father (who according to one insert was a Thai ambassador?) I don’t know anything about Thai authors and novels, so I’m blind here and thus know nothing about the author or her works. Based on the English summaries, I’m not sure these are my typical reads, but having an English summary would be a nice start.
ThaiI am still loving Maanii!
There is a tremendous amount of repetition for just about every word. It almost makes it hard not to learn all the words. I started working intensively with the Book 2 this past weekend. Unfortunately, I cannot get the actives at the SEAsite to work. I benefited a lot from the dictation and build-a-sentence drills for the first book and was hoping for the same. Oh, well. So, I’m just using the line-by-line audio and the notes and vocabulary pages.
The line-by-line audio of the SEAsite is a terrific companion to the chapter audio at learn2speakthai. The line-by-line at SEAsite is much faster than the chapter audio at learn2speakthai. So, I am listening hard to the line-by-line until I get each word and syllable. And then, I listen to the chapter audio from learn2speakthai while out and about, and it is so easy to follow. (The line-by-line at learn2speakthai is painfully slow for me, but it probably would have been perfect when I was just starting out. In contrast, the quality of the chapter audio at SEAsite is not very good. So, they work so well together. I thank everybody that made these resources available.)
I’m on Lesson 35 of Linguaphone. I am sort of bored by this course, so these last 10 lessons or so are taking longer than they should. I’d like to wrap it up by the end of the month.
FrenchI’m struggling to build a reliable habit of listening in French. I’m listening here and there, but it’s sloppy and I know, without a habit, what little I do do could disappear without my notice. I think it’s mostly a matter of building the habit around a particular time of day/activity. So, I’m working on figure out what will work best for me.